WHAT Architect WHERE Notes Arrondissement 1: Louvre Built in 1632 As a Masterpiece of Late Gothic Architecture
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WHAT Architect WHERE Notes Arrondissement 1: Louvre Built in 1632 as a masterpiece of late Gothic architecture. The church’s reputation was strong enough of the time for it to be chosen as the location for a young Louis XIV to receive communion. Mozart also Church of Saint 2 Impasse Saint- chose the sanctuary as the location for his mother’s funeral. Among ** Unknown Eustace Eustache those baptised here as children were Richelieu, Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, future Madame de Pompadour and Molière, who was also married here in the 17th century. Amazing façade. Mon-Fri (9.30am-7pm), Sat-Sun (9am-7pm) Japanese architect Tadao Ando has revealed his plans to convert Paris' Bourse de Commerce building into a museum that will host one of the world's largest contemporary art collections. Ando was commissioned to create the gallery within the heritage-listed building by French Bourse de Commerce ***** Tadao Ando businessman François Pinault, who will use the space to host his / Collection Pinault collection of contemporary artworks known as the Pinault Collection. A new 300-seat auditorium and foyer will be set beneath the main gallery. The entire cylinder will be encased by nine-metre-tall concrete walls and will span 30 metres in diameter. Opening soon The Jardin du Palais Royal is a perfect spot to sit, contemplate and picnic between boxed hedges, or shop in the trio of beautiful arcades that frame the garden: the Galerie de Valois (east), Galerie de Montpensier (west) and Galerie Beaujolais (north). However, it's the southern end of the complex, polka-dotted with sculptor Daniel Buren's Domaine National du ***** 8 Rue de Montpensier 260 black-and-white striped columns, that has become the garden's Palais-Royal signature feature. This elegant urban space is fronted by the neoclassical Palais Royal (closed to the public), constructed in 1633 by Cardinal Richelieu but mostly dating to the late 18th century. Louis XIV hung out here in the 1640s; today it is home to the Conseil d'État. Mon-Sun (7am-11pm) The vast Palais du Louvre was constructed as a fortress by Philippe- Auguste in the early 12th century and rebuilt in the mid-16th century Claude Perrault, Pierre as a royal residence. The Revolutionary Convention turned it into a Louvre Museum and Street rue de Rivoli ***** Lescot, Louis Visconti national museum in 1793. Collection includes Leonardo da Vinci’s La Palace & quai des Tuileries and Hector Lefuel Joconde, better known as Mona Lisa. General admission 15€, FREE for Europeans between 18-25. Mon-Sun (9am-6pm) Wed & Fri (9am-9.45pm), Tue (closed) Built in 2012 as part of the Louvre Mouseum. Excavated to a depth of 12 meters (40 feet), the 2,800 square meter (over 30,000 square foot) open-plan gallery is the new home of the Louvre’s prestigious collection of Islamic Arts. The gallery’s lower level and long sculptural Department of **** Rudy Ricciotti Louvre Museum stairway are comprised of a special black waxed concrete, providing a Islamic Arts stark contrast to the seemingly floating glass roof and the nearly invisible glass perimeter walls. The roof weighs a total of 120 tons with a thickness ranging from 20 cm to 1.50 m and a maximum height of 8 m. Mon-Sun (9am-6pm) Wed & Fri (9am-9.45pm), Tue (closed) Built in 1989 as part of the Louvre museum. In 1981, the newly elected French president, Francois Mitterrand, launched a campaign to ***** Louvre Pyramid I.M. Pei Place du Carrousel renovate cultural institutions throughout France. One of the most advantageous of those projects was the renovation and reorganization of the Louvre. The renovation of Cour Napoleon, the main court of the Louvre, alleviated the congestion from the thousands of daily visitors. A new grand entrance provided a convenient, central lobby space separate from the galleries, which provided focal point for the cyclical process of one’s experience through the museum. It has the same proportions of the famous Pyramid of Giza. Built in 1808 as a triumphal arch to commemorate Napoleon's military victories of the previous year. The proportions of the arch were directly drawn from those of the Arch of Septimius Severus in Rome; furthermore Percier and Fontaine deliberately copied ancient decorative Charles Percier and motifs of Corinthian columns in red and white marble, bas-reliefs Arc de Triomphe du *** Pierre François Léonard Place du Carrousel depicting the major events of the campaign and a chariot pulled by Carrousel Fontaine four horses at the top. The Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel is at the eastern end of Paris Axe historique ("historic axis"), a nine-kilometre- long linear route which dominates much of the northwestern quadrant of the city. Looking west, the arch is perfectly aligned with the obelisk in the Place de la Concorde. Created by Catherine de' Medici as the garden of the Tuileries Palace in 1564, it was eventually opened to the public in 1667 and became a public park after the French Revolution. In the 19th and 20th centuries, **** Tuileries Garden Bernard de Carnesse Place de la Concorde it was a place where Parisians celebrated, met, strolled and relaxed. Edward Manet painted his famous Music in the Tuileries (1862) here. Free admission. Mon-Sun (7am-9pm) The Musée de l'Orangerie is an art gallery of impressionist and post- impressionist paintings located in the west corner of the Tuileries Gardens next to the Place de la Concorde in Paris. It was originally built in 1852 to shelter the orange trees of the garden of the Tuileries Firmin Bourgeois and Jardin Tuileries/Place Palace. The museum is most famous as the permanent home of eight ** Musée de l'Orangerie Ludovico Visconti de la Concorde large Water Lilies murals by Claude Monet, and also contains works by Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri Rousseau, Alfred Sisley, Chaim Soutine, Maurice Utrillo, and others. General admission 9€, FREE for Europeans (18-24). Free the first Sunday of each month. Wed-Mon (9am-6pm) Two 3,300-year-old twin obelisks once marked the entrance to the Luxor Temple and one was brought to Paris in 1829 as a gift. It was given to France by Muhammad Ali Pasha, Ruler of Ottoman Egypt in exchange for a French mechanical clock. After the Obelisk was taken, **** Obélisque de Louxor - Place de la Concorde it was the mechanical clock provided in exchange was discovered to be faulty. The worthless clock still exists to this day in a clocktower in Egypt, and ironically is still not working. The Obelisk is 23 m (75 ft) high. It is the oldest monument of Paris. Built in 1997 as BNP Paribas bank offices. The building consists of a classically designed structure wrapped in a double-glazed façade, which is duplicated by a second, transparent outer façade, suspended from hidden anchor points. The Place du Marché Saint-Honoré has Place du Marché Place du Marché *** Ricardo Bofill played an important role in the history of Parisian squares. For many Saint-Honoré Saint-Honoré years this iconic square was occupied by a multistorey carpark. The decision to revitalise the area resulted in the demolition of the carpark structure and the construction of a 5-storey building accommodating offices, shops, basement parking, and a fire station. Octagonal place Vendôme and the arcaded and colonnaded buildings around it were constructed between 1687 and 1721. In March 1796 Napoléon married Josephine, Viscountess Beauharnais, in the building at No 3. Today the buildings surrounding the square house the posh Hôtel Ritz Paris and some of the city’s most fashionable boutiques. *** Place Vendôme Jules Hardouin-Mansart The original Vendôme Column at the center of the square was erected in 1702 by Napoleon I to commemorate the battle of Austerlitz; it was torn down on 16 May 1871, but subsequently re-erected and remains a prominent feature on the square today. It consists of a stone core wrapped in a 160m-long bronze spiral made from hundreds of Austrian and Russian cannons captured by Napoléon at the Battle in 1805. Arrondissement 2: Built in 1862 as an Art Nouveau public library. Upon Labrouste's death in 1875 the library was further expanded, including the grand staircase and the Oval Room, by academic architect Jean-Louis Pascal. The National Library of France traces its origin to the royal library Bibliothèque founded at the Louvre Palace by Charles V in 1368. The library's *** Henri Labrouste 58 Rue de Richelieu Nationale collections swelled to over 300,000 volumes during the radical phase of the French Revolution when the private libraries of aristocrats and clergy were seized. After the establishment of the French First Republic in September 1792, "the Assembly declared the Bibliotheque du Roi to be national property and the institution was renamed the Bibliothèque Nationale. Today it houses exceptional collections: manuscripts (from the remains of the most ancient writings to the manuscripts of modern writers), prints and photographs, stage music and art, letters and plans and finally the museum of coins, medals and antiques. Amazing Reading Room. Tue-Sat (10am-8pm), Sun (1-7pm) Built in 1903 as an Art Nouveau office with an impressive metalic façade which was really innovative for its time. Born in Maromme, France, in 1861 Georges-Paul Chedanne studied with Juleien Guadet at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris where he won many distinctions 124 de la rue and prizes, including the Grand Prix for his restoration drawings of * Le Parisien Offices Georges Chedanne Réaumur the Roman Pantheon. After his sojourn in Rome, Chedanne returned to Paris to practice independently.